Software AG bets big on industrial IoT, digital transformation: CEO

"The Indian market has already kicked off and Indian companies are moving quite fast in thinking about how they can capitalise on IoT," said Sanjay Brahmawar.

Enterprise software maker Software AG expects internet of things (IoT) and digital transformation of businesses to significantly boost its growth, including in India, said Sanjay Brahmawar, the German company’s newly appointed global chief executive.

Software AG sees the increasing use of IoT platforms to be a game-changer, alongside the growing realisation across industries on the need for digitisation.

"Companies are really understanding what they need to do... I think the big challenge now is the execution," Brahmawar told ET in an interview. "What we have set up in Germany is Adamos. It is a joint venture that we have established with machine building companies. The objective is to use the IoT platform, Cumulocity, and (on) top of that build with their domain expertise applications and solutions that are delivering value."

Adamos, or adaptive manufacturing open solutions, is a strategic alliance among DMG MORI, Dürr, Software AG, and ZEISS, as well as ASM PT industrial IoT. According to a forecast by IDC, worldwide spending on IoT should reach $772.5 billion in 2018, increasing at a 14.4% compound annual growth rate through 2017-2021 to cross $1.1 trillion in 2020.

Software AG, which has its largest research and development centre in India with nearly 800 people, has filed for 25 patents from the country in IoT and other emerging technology areas.

"The Indian market has already kicked off and Indian companies are moving quite fast in thinking about how they can capitalise on IoT. They do not have the baggage of old systems. We would be looking at expanding," said Brahmawar.

Brahmawar, who was general manager for global revenue at IBM’s Watson IoT unit and managed multiple other roles at the technology major, said Software AG is betting big on the existing plugin tools that can make artificial intelligence platforms such as IBM Watson work perfectly for organisations.